Tag: Mike Zimmer

Stock up stock down from the Vikings’ win over the Packers

Whose stock rose and whose stock fell after the Vikings’ Week 11 win over the Packers?

The Vikings won a crucial game against the Packers on Sunday.

Minnesota notched its record to 5-5 with the win. Not only did the Vikings defeat a divisional rival, but the team raised its playoff hopes and pulled off an upset victory.

There were a lot of positive takeaways from the game. Here is the full stock report from the Vikings’ Week 11 victory:

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer doesn’t think Sundays are fun

Vikings fans feel your pain, Zim.

So far, the Vikings’ biggest loss in terms of scoring margin this year came against the Browns — and that game was decided by only seven points. That is to say, Minnesota has mostly played its opponents close.

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer seems a bit stressed. The Minnesota head coach talked to the media after his team beat the Packers 34-31:

“Sundays are not fun,” Zimmer said. “You know, they say, Sunday is fun day? It is not. It is not at all. Like I said the other day, every play with (Aaron Rodgers) is a fight. You just hope that when they go down and score on one play that the offense can come back and do what they did.”

Zimmer’s Vikings notched their record to 5-5 with the upset victory. The team is back at .500 for the first time since Week 6 when it defeated the Panthers. Minnesota will need to pull off more upsets during a difficult 2021 slate of games. Hopefully for fans and coaches, the Vikings pull away by a few scores during some of these matchups.

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer gets call from Deion Sanders mid-press conference

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer got an interesting phone call when speaking to the media Monday.

Deion Sanders earned the nickname “Primetime” after scoring 30 points in a high school basketball game. But nicknames stick for a reason. Sanders’ flashy style of play and his ability to step up in key moments helped the name stay popular throughout his career as a professional athlete.

On Monday, Sanders picked a pretty key moment to reach Vikings coach Mike Zimmer. Zimmer, while speaking to the media, received a call from the Hall of Fame corner.

When Sanders first called him, Zimmer ignored it. Then, when Sanders called a second time, the Vikings coach caved and answered. Sanders appeared to hang up this time around. Sanders called the Vikings coach a third time and apologized by saying the service in his house was not good.

Third time was the charm. Zimmer got Sanders to speak to the media briefly:

“That’s a big win my man had yesterday. I picked him,” Sanders told the media. “I knew he was going to be dominant yesterday.”

Zimmer coached Sanders when the two were on the Cowboys together. Sanders is now a coach himself for the Jackson State Tigers. Sanders recently returned to the team after recovering from foot surgery in the hospital.

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer seems OK with an aggressive offense

Growth >>>>>

The Vikings offenses during the Mike Zimmer era have often relied on a run-heavy style.

If recent Minnesota teams had a mantra, it would be to let the defense win it games and let the offense stay out of the way.

Is that mantra changing? The Vikings aired it out against the Chargers in Week 10, which led to the upset victory.

Zimmer said he told Kirk Cousins this week that the quarterback needed to throw the ball down the field more, per Chris Tomasson of the Pioneer Press.

That’s not the only promising thing Zimmer said.

“I do think that sometimes he needs to be aggressive with the football, and I thought he was [Sunday], especially in the second half,” Zimmer said of Kirk Cousins, per ESPN’s Courtney Cronin. “He’s gotta trust everybody, and if he has to hum a couple in there and they get tipped or something, so be it. That’s why we’re a team.”

Despite averaging just 3.4 yards per carry, Minnesota (4-5) scored 27 points en route to the win. Cousins finished with 294 passing yards, two touchdown passes and just one turnover in total. Maybe Zimmer is progressing in his offensive philosophy. Maybe the Vikings are progressing, too.

Vikings vs. Chargers: Three questions for Week 10

The Vikings have more questions than answers at the moment.

At 3-5, Minnesota has a lot of question marks. The Chargers, at 5-3 and atop a difficult AFC West, appear to have a lot of things figured out in 2021.

Minnesota’s season is currently spiraling. Who will be healthy for the Vikings in Week 10? Minnesota had some key players on the injury report Wednesday. What changes will the team start to make — in terms of personnel decisions — if the Vikings continue to lose games in 2021?

These are all valid questions, ones that the team needs to answer soon. For the Vikings, here are three more questions that are specific to their game against the Chargers on Sunday:

COVID-19 related pneumonia sends Vikings player to hospital

The Minnesota Vikings are plagued by COVID-19 issues

Scary news out of Minnesota on Wednesday. Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer said one of his players was in the hospital due to COVID-19 related pneumonia.

Zimmer did not name the player. However, ESPN reported it is guard Dakota Dozier.

“I’m not a doctor, but it was COVID pneumonia or something, he had a hard time breathing,” Zimmer said.

The Star-Tribune reported a handful of Minnesota players have been placed on the COVID-19 list.

Two more Vikings players have to stay away from the team after being placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list on Monday, bringing the total of isolated players up to five in the past five days.

Linebacker Ryan Connelly, who played 21 snaps on special teams during Sunday’s loss in Baltimore, and practice squad tackle Timon Parris have to clear league protocols to return, with the rules varying on whether they tested positive or were a close contact, as well as vaccinated or unvaccinated.

They join safety Harrison Smith, center Garrett Bradbury, and guard Dakota Dozier who were all placed on the COVID list since Thursday.

Stock up, stock down from the Vikings’ loss to the Ravens

Where do the Vikings go from here?

The Vikings played another close game on Sunday.

Minnesota eventually fell to Baltimore on the road. At 3-5, the Vikings desperately needed to win that game in a year where postseason contention seemed like a necessity.

Minnesota will have to recalibrate. The team has no choice but to attempt to salvage its season. The Vikings had some positive takeaways from the Ravens’ game — especially when it came to the more inexperienced players on the field.

However, things are looking grim. The Vikings need to fix a plethora of problems.

Here is the stock up, stock down from the Vikings’ overtime loss to the Ravens on Sunday:

Stock up, stock down from the Vikings’ loss to the Cowboys

The Vikings are in trouble.

Despite playing an elite Cowboys team, the Vikings had a winnable matchup on Sunday night.

Dallas, missing star quarterback Dak Prescott, still managed to defeat Minnesota. The Cowboys moved to 6-1 with the victory.

Now, the Vikings have to try and salvage the 2021 season. Minnesota needs to recalibrate and figure out what went wrong in a game the team should have won.

Here is the stock up, stock down from the Vikings’ Week 8 loss to the Cowboys at home:

Three things to watch during Vikings-Cowboys

Here are three things to watch in the Vikings-Cowboys game on Sunday:

The Vikings will have one of their toughest tests of the season on Sunday night.

The Dallas Cowboys head to U.S. Bank Stadium for Week 8. Minnesota could use this win, as the team is in a tough stretch of its 2021 slate. Here are three things to watch for the upcoming matchup:

This Mike Zimmer stat will get you fired up for the Cowboys-Vikings game

Who’s excited for the Vikings’ game vs. the Cowboys?

The Cowboys are favorites in Week 8 for a reason.

Dallas has a high-octane offense. In fact, the team has the top-ranked offense in yards and points per game this year. Cowboys QB Dak Prescott is expected to be ready for the Vikings matchup, despite suffering a calf strain in Week 6. All that is to say, Minnesota cannot take Dallas lightly.

But Mike Zimmer has been through this kind of game before. According to NFL Media Research, Zimmer is 6-2 all time against the league’s best offense (H/T Vikings team reporter Eric Smith). That stat includes when he was a defensive coordinator earlier in his coaching career.

In those eight games, Zimmer’s teams held opposing offenses below their season scoring average every time.

This year, the Vikings’ defense has not been perfect. Minnesota allowed Cincinnati and Arizona to torch its secondary. The Vikings’ 0-2 start was mostly due to a lack of execution on that side of the ball.

However, the Minnesota defense has been better the past several games. The Vikings will need the more recent version of the defense to show up against the Cowboys. If that’s the case, NFL Media Research may have to add one to the win column on that Zimmer stat after Week 8.